Contents

History

The rings were made along with the others in Eregion and were forged by Celebrimbor. Those were locked away in one of the safes of Eregion, but all were captured by Sauron. He gave nine of them to nine kings of Men, three of which were Númenóreans and one was an Easterling.

During the end of the Third Age, possibly Sauron had took the Nine Rings with him in order to augment his power.
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Effect

The Rings of Power gave their wearer powerful magical abilities and gave them the ability to influence peoples' will.

On Men those effects could be special: The rings gave a very long life, but the wearer would begin to feel worn out and eventually fade away into a wraith. The nine kings given the rings turned into Ringwraiths because Sauron was able to take control of the rings.

Possession of the Nine Rings

In The Council of ElrondGandalf says that the Nazgûl kept their Rings by saying "The Nine the Nazgûl keep"[3]. However in most other references, it is mentioned that Sauron had taken them. Furthermore, Frodo doesn't see any Rings on them on Weathertop, and it is believed that if they did wear the Rings, they would have been fully invisible (including their cloaks).

It's possible that the line in the Council of Elrond represents Tolkien's earlier intention that the Nazgûl should still be wearing their Rings; if that's so, he later changed his mind and simply missed revising that sentence.[4]